I can't wait to read the piece, but the "eternal battle" between challenge and accessibility described in the teaser post has me a bit worried.

Or, at the very least, it raises some important questions about the next game and the direction From Software takes with it.

As we find out in issue 249, the answers to these questions are in the hands of game directors new to the Souls series, Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, who have taken the reins from Hidetaka Miyazaki. Their descriptions of how they intend to mould Dark Souls II into a more approachable form seem reasonable. But Shibuya admits that their approach will be influenced by their individual characters. “I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle,” he tells us. “[Dark Souls II] will be more straightforward and more understandable.” We sympathise if that sort of statement concerns you, but at the same time, we can surely agree that we would all like to see Dark Souls attain as great a presence as The Elder Scrolls. How it gets there is a worthy matter for debate, but it’s certainly a noble task.

NOTE: Some readers are reading this passage as Shibuya saying he wants the game more like The Elder Scrolls. That was the Edge writer, not anyone at From.

On its face, one might suspect that this means Dark Souls 2 will lose some of its depth, that the "noble task" is not so noble really. The game's ability to baffle and confound in or out of combat is one of its charms, and making it too straightforward would be as damaging to the game as making it easy.

On the other hand, I think Dark Souls actually was more straightforward than Demon's Souls and lost nothing in the process. Abandoning the confounding World Tendency system was a good move because the system, while a good idea, never really worked and ultimately detracted from the game.

Would a little less wiki-crawling to learn important game mechanics, elaborate stats systems, etc. be such a bad thing? I can see how the next game could retain all its mystery and depth while still making the game more accessible in the beginning.

This could be done without harming the spirit or challenge of the game, or it could be done in a way that breaks what's so special about the Souls series.

I think the questions are two-fold: can the From team do this without Miyazaki at the helm? And will there be pressure to make the game more mainstream and more commercially successful?

Honestly, I think Namco Bandai understands that the draw for this franchise is its difficulty and replay value, so I doubt they put any real pressure on From to make significant changes.

As Shibuya tells Edge, this will likely be driven more by personalities than anything else.

I also think the talent and knowledge at From extends beyond Miyazaki, whose influence will still be present in the sequel.

In other words, I have some worries, but they're still dwarfed by my excitement. We'll know more soon.